COVID-19 lockdowns in Nordic countries saved working-age men but not women
- 2 min. read ▪ Published
Working-age men (15–64 years old) die more frequently than working-age women in nearly all societies that measure vital statistics. One reason for this disparity may be that men tend to behave in ways that are riskier. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, countries restrained risky behavior to reduce the spread of infection. This allowed researchers a peak of what working-age male mortality may look like if that behavior was reduced.
A new analysis by Professor Emeritus Ray Catalano of UC Berkeley School of Public Health is the first to look at how well greater restraint worked for men versus women in Nordic countries during the pandemic.
In a paper published in Science Advances, Catalano found that Nordic countries that shut down during the pre-vaccine pandemic saved working age men but not women. Death was less likely among people aged 15–64 in Denmark, Finland, and Norway than it was for the same age group in Sweden and Iceland, but this was true only for men, not women.
Catalano relied on data from Nordic countries where governments differed in their approaches to reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection over 13 weeks from March 16, 2020 to June 14, 2020. All Nordic countries exhorted their populations to reduce risky behavior, but Denmark, Finland, and Norway restrained risky behavior by law, through “shut-downs,” while Sweden and Iceland did so to a lesser extent.
Denmark, Finland, and Norway closed schools, cultural institutions, and nonessential businesses like bars and restaurants. On the other hand, Iceland and Sweden mostly used exhortation, but Iceland did test and isolate infected people. The study period ended in June 2020 because by then Denmark, Finland, and Norway moved away from restraint and closer to exhortation and Sweden added more restraint, particularly for the elderly.
Catalano recommends future research explore the idea that societal restraints on behavior interact with gender-based roles to make risk of infection different for men and women during epidemics. “Does, for example, working from home or in the care-providing professions cause women to spend more time exposed to infectious clients or family members?,” said Catalano.
